Yankees, Man City establishing $100M soccer team

Wednesday

May 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

NEW YORK — Hoping their baseball success will translate to titles in another sport, the Yankees are combining with English power Manchester City to own a Major League Soccer expansion team in New York that will start play in 2015.

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Hoping their baseball success will translate to titles in another sport, the Yankees are combining with English power Manchester City to own a Major League Soccer expansion team in New York that will start play in 2015.

The team, the 20th in a league that has doubled in size in two decades, will be called New York City Football Club. It has less than two years to find a temporary home while also focusing on where it wants to build a permanent stadium.

Manchester City, owned by Sheik Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, will be the controlling owner. The Yankees were approached about investing last week and will have an interest of 20 percent to 25 percent, a person familiar with the deal said.

The expansion fee for the new team is $100 million. It will compete for attention and dollars with 10 other professional big-league clubs in the New York market, including the New York Red Bulls of the MLS.

"They'll be running all the soccer. We know our way around New York, how to get things done," said Yankees president Randy Levine, who will be the team's lead person in the launch.

While the Yankees have won a record 27 World Series titles, Manchester City is more akin to the crosstown Mets. It has just three league championships in England compared with rival Manchester United's 20.

MLS has been negotiating with New York City to build a stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, near the home of the Mets. The Mets had explored owning an MLS team before financial turmoil caused by the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.